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Lost in Translation; Or How Sticking to One's Guns Created a Paragiam Shift in What is Popular in Games
Topic Started: Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:06 pm (491 Views)
Sanji Himura
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I came across this article on Dualshockers.com. Despite being over a week old, it shares many concerns that I have in the Japanese games market overall, like production, advertisements, and how one studio is staffed.

Before I let you get to the meat of the article, I would like to share that many games that do or do not make it out of Japan share a large factor. Most games that do not make it out of Japan share a cultural influence. That means that if a game or characters are rooted in Japanese culture, then the Japanese companies will typically fight to keep it in Japan. Some examples of this is Capcom's Mega Man, a game that would have stayed in Japan if it was released today instead of 1988, and Sega's Yakuza series, a game that for a while stayed in Japan had it not been for a strong word of mouth campaign in the United States. Even today, Sega is sitting on the HD remasters of Shenmue, Shenmue II as well as Skies of Arcadia and has been for well over a year while they "mull over market conditions".(Link for that news at the RPG Section)

Anyways, enough of me talking, let's get to the article:

dualshockers.com
 
For the last twelve years or so there’s been this paradigm shift in video game development and the philosophy that surrounds it. Much of it stems from the newer game creators that are popping up from literally every where. Every single day we’re seeing new creative hot zones spring up across the globe, with North America and Western Europe seeing the biggest influx of home grown talent. It’s safe to say: we’re at the tail end of gaming’s first renaissance.

In that span of time the “west” has been at an all time high, while the “east” — well the “far east” — hasn’t earned nearly as much fanfare. The Miyamotos, Inafunes, and Sakaguchis that I grew up with have quietly been replaced by the Blezinskis, Howards, Notches and Hudsons. Consumers have voted with their wallets and have decided the kinds of games, characters, and stories that they want to experience.

When this change began, Japanese developers decided to stick to their guns and continue to create games the only way that they knew how, and for a while were still seeing moderate success; especially with bigger and well known IPs. Eventually though, the sales numbers began to dip and a Japanese developed title that would have killed it at retail a decade prior was now struggling to find a publisher for a western release. And that pretty much describes the point we’re currently at now.

I’m not going to try and figure out the smoking gun that brought upon this change because there are just too many variables to consider. Instead, let’s go over how Japanese developers haven’t really tried to adjust to the changes and in the process have lost a lot of what made them unique in the first place. How the downfall of the Japanese games industry is a product of their own creation.

“To win… you must first acknowledge your loss and prepare to start over” - Inafune-san

At the 2012 Game Developers Conference, just as he did the year prior and despite the certain backlash he will face in his native Japan, Mega Man co-creator Keiji Inafune has warned that “time is running out.” He believes Japanese developers rely too heavily on the nostalgia factor from “blasts from the past.” Instead of being innovative, some of them are easily creating the kinds of games that they assume people want to buy rather than something unique and compelling that will be able to sell itself on a global level.

Some Japanese developers, through their choice of projects and IPs, may indicate that they want to step out and onto a more global stage of game development, yet their actions seem to show otherwise. In a December 2011 interview with Gamasutra, Yakuza creator and SEGA COO Toshihiro Nagoshi spoke about Binary Domain and it’s western influence. When asked about it’s target audience he responded by saying “My ultimate goals are worldwide… I like the idea of breaking out of Japan into the rest of the world — maybe it’s just an image in my mind, but that’s how I’d like to go. That’s part of why the game is set in Japan, after all.”

What’s ironic about Nagoshi-san’s statement, is that the complaints that I had during my review of Binary Domain was that it’s Japanese influence was arguably a bit too prevalent for a traditional western shooter fan’s liking. And here we are looking at an interview from weeks prior where he’s talking about how he’d prefer to have success in Japan, and have it branch out from there. That train of thought is a prime example of what Inafune is talking about.

“It doesn’t matter where they are from, working with highly motivated individuals is the only way to move forward” - Kojima-san

If you want to take a look at someone who has done things right despite the decline, look no further than Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima. While other developers were trying to push more of the same from Japan, Kojima-san and his production studio recognized the industry’s flaws and acted on it. They promoted American-born Ryan Payton to act as assistant producer for the biggest title in the Metal Gear saga thus far.

Ryan would provide his own insight and influence to ensure that the game had a very high level of western appeal. The payoff was Metal Gear Solid 4 becoming a critically acclaimed final product, one that – four years later — still ranks among the highest scoring titles in the PlayStation 3 library. The difference here is that pride (some may call it stubbornness) was set aside in favor to create a great product. It’s something that that entire Japanese game industry should make note of if they plan on bouncing back.

Survival of the fittest doesn’t just apply to the animal kingdom, it’s just as relevant to business. A major aspect of survival is one’s ability to adapt to their surroundings. Right now, I believe from what I see and hear is that the Japanese game industry is in poor form and slowly dwindling into irrelevancy. It needs to adapt to in order to survive and unfortunately only a few people on that side of the world are coming to grips with that reality.

This doesn’t mean that we should lose all hope. It’s also not a suggestion that you should start listening to knuckleheads like Phil Fish. Actually it’s far from that.

I think that there are still great stories left to be told. Stories filled with characters and emotions that only Japanese developers know how to truly convey. However, those developers need to show humility and branch out to different avenues, people, and influences to help deliver those ideas to a global audience. When looking for who’s at fault for the current situation though, unfortunately they only have themselves to blame.


Editorial: Lost in Translation
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ShogunRok
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I remember the good old days when everyone loved the crap out of Final Fantasy, when Japan ruled the gaming world and generally the stuff they released would be leagues above anything the west could create.

Now it's basically the opposite, like the article says. Japan hasn't adapted well at all to the HD console era, they stuck to the games they knew and nothing has evolved to the degree you expect.

While western developers are churning out stunning games like Skyrim, Uncharted, Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed - pushing story telling and immersion to high new levels - most Japanese developers are stuck in a seemingly low-budget rut, making games that by all means could be on PS2.

I think a game that reflects the influence of Japanese developed games extremely well is Journey on PS3. Without games like Shadow of the Colossus and Ico, I doubt Journey would exist. But at the same time, if you had shown me Journey 6 years ago and told me it was created by a Western developer, I would have called you a liar. Where is Japan's answer to games like Journey? Oh right, they're all still on the PS2 :kurokan:

I think this situation also has a lot to do with the Japanese market. Week in, week out, handheld consoles like the 3DS and PSP outsell home consoles by thousands. The whole demographic is slipping further and further from the west's. Handheld consoles are easier to develop for, and cheaper, and they don't require such hefty development times. As businesses, why should Japanese publishers be worrying about western releases for home console games, when they could make 2 or 3 handheld games a reality for the same cost, and in the same time frame? And make huge profits in the Japanese market alone?

The Japanese market is only getting more and more isolated. Development teams are being cut and publishers are primarily focused on selling big numbers in their home country. I'm hoping this trend comes to and end when next gen rolls around, and the Japanese make up for their lost time.

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Sanji Himura
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I wouldn't call it isolated persay, but the Japanese have this twisted sense of culture that should be defended above all else, even against the wishes of the western world.

A common example is Mega Man. He was created in about 1988. Capcom, thinking he wouldn't sell well in Japan, dumped him in the West were we saw him as a Capcom icon. He slowly got popular in Japan, in particular among the youth there, over the years and quickly became recognized as a cultural icon. That is why Capcom was so quick to stop development on Mega Man Legends 3. They saw that the devroom was filled with mostly American people. That is why I said that if Mega Man 1 was developed today instead of 1988, it would have stayed in Japan.

Now for an example of how Western adoption worked properly, you only had to look at Hideo Kojima and Metal Gear. The history of Metal Gear is rich in goofs and jumping the gun, but it lead to right decisions made for the sake of the franchise, and a revitalized franchise is a healthy one. Konami sure made them, but they recognize they had a hit on their hands in the West, and made a game for them.
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Wild Lion
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It's more like Japanese games were a cool new fad in the 90s and early 2000s, and now their time has passed. Japanese devs aren't doing anything differently than when we loved them, and that's exactly why we don't any more.

The gamers who loved Final Fantasy on the Playstation have grown up, their tastes have changed, and Final Fantasy has not. The younger generations are being raised on a different experience than what Japan wants to offer, so they're losing both their old customers and not gaining many new ones to make up losses.

Just like anime and manga, Japanese games' popularity in the West has come and gone.

Production costs are too high on PC/PS3/360 for big devs to take risks
Handhelds are the only happy medium between cost and profit this gen
Japan is obsessed with handhelds
Handhelds are ignored by Western devs
The West is ignored by Japanese devs
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Sanji Himura
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I wouldn't call it a fad, persay. The Japanese still carry a lot of weight in the gaming industry. Remember when Square-Enix bought Edios Interactive in 2009? I wouldn't call that push by SE a fad, and neither should you.

To explain, you see there is a mob mentality when it comes to video games. The Fighting Game Community here in the US generally thinks all Capcom fighting games are great and plays them to death, while calling other fighters made by other companies rubbish. Take this example, Mortal Kombat IX, won numerous awards by the press, hell, even Angry Joe called it a 'Template that all fighting games should follow.'

Posted Image

The owner of this copy broke his, not in favor of Capcom, admittedly because he broke a copy of Third Strike, but for the bad online that his region gets. I'm willing to wager, due to the bad mouthing of the game he favors now, he brakes his copy of Soul Calibur 5 in less than 6 months.
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Wandrian
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Also, the collapse of Japan's gaming industry is a self-fulfilling prophecy. As companies have slimmer and slimmer profit margins, they become more conservative in their approaches to everything. This more conservative approach also is applied to game design, which makes profit margins slimmer and fuels a self-sustaining cycle of destruction.

@Sanji Himura: "Per se" and "break." I'm not big on being a grammar Nazi, but for some reason today these two errors really ate at me.
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Sanji Himura
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Wandrian
Mon Apr 2, 2012 12:01 am
Also, the collapse of Japan's gaming industry is a self-fulfilling prophecy. As companies have slimmer and slimmer profit margins, they become more conservative in their approaches to everything. This more conservative approach also is applied to game design, which makes profit margins slimmer and fuels a self-sustaining cycle of destruction.
I wouldn't call it a self-fulfilling prophecy because America and Europe are still buying their products. Final Fantasy XIII, the last single player core game of the series, moved, as of May 18th 2010(I know that I am using out of date data, but it is to prove a point), 6.2 million units of the game worldwide. It was also critiqued well, scoring a solid 83/100 on Metacritic.

Street Fighter IV, the game that brought the fighting genre back to mainstream, sold over 3.1 million units in March 2011, and its first "Expansion Pack", Super Street Fighter IV, sold 1.8 million units (that is in addition to the 400k of Arcade Edition sold) by December 2011.

While Ono and Capcom may be done with SFIV for now, it goes to my previous post that here in America, people will eat up anything made by a certain company because of name recognition.
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Wandrian
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Yes, but those are exceptions and when even Capcom's cash grabs(UMvC3, SFxT) are failing to be significantly profitable then I'd say you've got good evidence that people are just sick of them doing the exact same thing every few months and expecting easy money from it. It's not a sustainable business model, but companies love to try it anyways.
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